Apparatus for processing and packaging textile slivers



Aug. 2, 1966 s. L. COLE 3,253,231

APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING AND PACKAGING TEXTILE SLIVERS File March 1, 1961 a Sheets-Sheet 1 i E I ,1

i I i $113121? 2 ii I Q 5 E a L J/ A F/GJ fil le. ToR dd) g air-L hi7 S- L. COLE Aug. 2, 1966 APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING AND PACKAGING TEXTILE SLIVERS Filed March 1, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 United States Patent 3,263,281 APPARATUS FOR PROCESSING AND PACKAGING TEXTILE SLIVERS Stanley Lewis Cole, Helmshore, Rossendale, England,

assignor to T.M.M. (Research) Limited, Oldham, England, a British company Filed Mar. 1, 1961, Ser. No. 92,679 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Mar. 9, 1961), 8,335/60 Claims. (Cl. 19160) The invention is concerned with the provision of apparatus whereby textile fibrous material in sliver form may be coiled in containers, transported therein to a subsequent processing station such as a draw-frame, and creeled at the latter, all or substantially all the operations involved in the several stages being performed automatically and continuously. For reasons of economy of space and greater convenience of sliver conveyance, the invention preferably uses containers of rectangular plan form.

The present invention proposes, for use in conjunction with apparatus for packaging in coiled formation the output of a machine or plant producing a textile sliver, continuously operable apparatus comprising automatic means for locating an empty container in receiving relationship with the coiler, and means for indexing the container when full past the coiler. The apparatus may include measuring means for determining the coiling of a given quantity of sliver in a container and for actuating said containerindexing means.

Mechanical means may be provided for transporting empty containers in succession to the coiling station, and where, as is desirable, the containers are of rectangular plan form and subdivided by parallel partitions into a plurality of rectangular compartments disposed athwart the container, the aforesaid indexing and locating means will respectively be effective to bring each compartment in turn into receiving relationship with the coiler and to hold the container in that position during the filling of the compartment.

While the apparatus provided in accordance with the invention is suitable for handling the output of a single sliver-producing machine, such as a carding machine, it is adaptable to a plant in which there are one or more batteries of such machines, and in such case the apparatus will incorporate track means for transporting the sliver containers (whether empty or full) around the machine room floor, each such battery delivering slivers to a drawbox where they are combined and passed to a coiler unit to be deposited in containers received from the floor track.

There follows a more detailed description of an automatic plant for use in handling the sliver output of a battery of four carding machines arranged in parallel, reference being made to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, in which FIG. 1 is a plan of the lay-out of the plant, FIG. 2 is an end elevation, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view thereof in which the carding machines have been omitted. FIG. 4 illustrates the details of a lever assembly forming part of the structure of the invention.

The relative dispositions of the several parts of the plant are most clearly understood by reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, which show a battery of four carding machines, A, B, C and D, the sliver output of which is taken to a railwayhead table E and thence over a bridge F, through a drawbox G to a coiler unit H. For reasons of economy of space and greater convenience of conveyance, the apparatus preferably uses sliver containers of rectangular plan form, subdivided by parallel partitions into a plurality of rectangular compartments, as described in patent specification No. 2,939,184, although it will be understood that containers of other shape such as the conventional cylindrical cans, may be employed without departing from the principle of the invention.

Patented August 2, 1966 The coiler unit H, being supported on two spaced vertical columns, forms a bridge as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, beneath which a rectangular can may be passed by a conveyor floor track indicated generally at 1. One of the cans is represented at K; it is divided by the partitions K1 into rectangular compartments the width of which approximates the throw of the coiler unit H, and it is mounted on wheels for transport on the floor by said floor track. Said track forms a closed loop circuit, passing also beneath the bridge F, and it is operated by an endless moving chain 10, guided around sprockets 11, and driven by an electric motor 12 through suitable reduction gearing 13, 14- (FIG. 3). Mounted at intervals on said chain are dogs 15, 15 any one of which is adapted to impinge against a lever abutment 16 depending from each of the cans K.

The coiler head H is fitted with a switch 17 which is operated by the traversing coiler head H1 when it reaches its end position. Said switch 17 is normally in a deenergised condition and the repeated operation of the switch at each traverse of the coiler will have no effect until a can compartment has been filled.

Each can K carries along each side four spaced stops K2, there being one such stop at each side for each compartment of the can. When the can is located at the coiling station it is located accurately beneath the coiler-head by the impingement of a pair of said stops K2 (according to the compartment which is being filled) against retractable abutments 21 which are supported beneath the floor level on levers 22 which are controlled by solenoids 23 as hereinafter described.

With one compartment of a can positioned beneath the coiler, the amount of sliver coiled into the compartment is determined by a hunter cog mechanism comprising gear wheels 18 and 19 which are driven by the coiler mechanism and are provided with abutments 181 and 191, the number of teeth in said gears 18, 19 being so arranged that said abutments 181, 191 come into contact after a pre determined number of revolutions corresponding to the length of sliver required to fill a compartment. When this occurs the gear 19 is displaced laterally in its mounting, and this movement is used to operate a switch 20 which starts the floor track motor 12 and also energises the switch 17 so that at the next traverse of the coiler H1 the switch 17 is operated to energise the solenoids 23, causing the latter to retract the abutments 21 which have been holding the can stationary beneath the coiler by means of the stops K2.

With the abutments 21 retracted, the can is free to move along the floor on its own wheels when the lever 16 is engaged by one of the track chain dogs 15. The lever 16 is however mounted on a transverse rod 161 and connected thereto by springs 162, as shown most clearly in FIG. 4, which permit the lever 16 to yield if engaged by a dog 15 when the can is held by the abutments 21.

After the can has moved a short distance from the coiling station of any compartment a switch 24 is released by the shaped plate 25 which is fixed to the underside of the can, thereby de-energising the solenoids 2-3 and allowing the abutments 21 to be raised into the path of the next stop K2 on the can, so that the can will be brought to rest with the next compartment to be filled in the correct position below the coiler.

A second hunter cog mechanism, comprising the gear 18 and a gear 26 provided with an abutment 261, is arranged to operate after a predetermined interval following the indexing of the can and by lateral displacement of the gear 26 on contact of the abutments 181, 261, a switch 27 is operated to stop the track driving motor 12 at the desired time.

If it be desired to move the can from beneath the coiler manually, depression of one of the foot pedals 28 will retract the abutments 21 and by moving the handle 29 which is fixed on the rod 161 to the position shown in dotted lines, the lever 16 may be raised out of the path of the dogs 15 of the conveyor chain 10.

Empty cans are automatically brought beneath the coiler to replace a can in which all the compartments have been filled by placing them on the track so that the lever 16 depends into the path of the dogs 15; they will then be moved along until they come into contact with and are arrested by the can which is held underneath the coiler by the abutments 21. When the can beneath the coiler is moved forward by the indexing mechanism, the next empty can will follow in contact therewith, and when the last compartment in a can has been filled, the first compartment of the empty can will be positioned beneath the coiler and the full can will be carried away from the coiling position by the track until the track is stopped, when the full can is brought to a predetermined position at a remote station, e.g. a storage area or the creeling station of a subsequent processing machine.

It will be understood that conventional means are provided for guiding the cans around the corners of the track, or wherever such means are required.

The loops of sliver between adjacent cans are severed by the relative movement of the cans as they are moved successively from the coiling station.

It will be seen that in the embodiment of the invention hereinbefore described the cans are transported by a single track conveyor serving the coiler unit, each can is indexed compartment by compartment past the coiling station, and the filled cans are conveyer to the remote station hereinbefore defined, empty cans continuing the cycle as before. In an alternative arrangement, the coiler unit may be served by a subsidiary or loop conveyor track, to which cans are diverted from the main floor track, and from which the filled cans are subsequently returned to said main track. Similarly, the storage area and/ or the creel area of another machine may be served by subsidiary or loop tracks, the main track being reserved for cans in transport between the several coiling, storage and creeling stations, or for cans which for the time being cannot be accommodated at any of such stations.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. For use in conjunction with apparatus for receiving coiled textile sliver, said apparatus including textile receiving cans and a coiling station having means for delivering textile sliver into the receiving cans; intermittently actuating moving means for moving the cans in turn into receiving relation with said coiling station, said last mentioned means comprising an automatically operable endless conveyor, means for automatically restraining the cans at said coiling station against continuing movement of the conveyor, means for stopping movement of the conveyor after a predetermined interval following delivery of one of the cans to the coiling station, means for initiating movement of said conveyor after a predetermined interval of sliver delivery, and means for subsequently actuating said restraining means and for associating the cans with said conveyor for travel thereby.

2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, for use with cans subdivided into a plurality of compartment-s, including indexing means for bringing each compartment of a can in turn into receiving relationship with the coiling station.

3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein said means for initiating conveyor movement comprises means for measuring the length of sliver delivered into a compartment, said indexing means automatically actuated by said length-measuring means.

4. Apparatus as claimed in claim 3, wherein the correct locating of each compartment of a can in receiving relationship with the coiling station is determined by the engagement of a stop means suitably positioned on the can in relation to each said compartment with said restraining means adjacent the coiling station, said means for actuating the restraining means controlled by said length-measuring means for retracting the restraining means to permit the can to be indexed to bring the next empty compartment to the coiling station or to convey the can forward from the coiling station.

5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein said conveyor comprises a closed loop floor track serving the coiling station and areas remote therefrom.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,571,060 l/1926 Naumberg l9159 2,571,880 10/1951 Hinson l9159 2,939,184 6/1960 Watson et al 19-159 2,988,785 6/1961 Nod-a l9-159 FOREIGN PATENTS 718,084 10/1931 France.

ROBERT R. MACKEY, Primary Examiner.

DONALD W. PARKER, Examiner. 

1. FOR USE IN CONJUNCTIOLN WITH APPARATUS FOR RECEIVING COILED TEXTILE SILVER, SAID APPARATUS INCLUDING TEXTILE RERECEIVING CANS AND A COILING STATION HAVING MEANS FOR DELIVERING TEXTILE SILVER INTO THE RECEIVING CANS; INTERMITTENTLY ACTUATING MOVING MEANS FOR MOVING THE CANS IN TURN INTO RECEIVING RELATION WITGH SAID COILING STATION, SAID LAST MENTIONED MEANS COMPRISING AN AUTOMATICALLY OPERABLE ENDLESS CONVEYOR, MEANS FOR AUTOMATICALLY RESTRAINING THE CANS AT SAID COILING STATION AGAINST CONTINUING MOVEMENT OF THE CONVEYOR, MEANS FOR STOPPING MOVEMENT OF THE CONVEYOR AFTER A PREDETERMINED INTERVAL FOLLOWING DELIVERY OF ONE OF THE CANS TO THE COIL STATION, MEANS FOR INITIATING MOVEMENT OF SAID CONVEYOR AFTER A PREDETERMINED INTERVAL OF SILVER DELIVERY, AND MEANS FOR SUBSEQUENTLY ACTUATING SAID RESTRSINING MEANS AND FOR ASSOCIATING THE CANS WITH SAID CONVEYOR FOR TRAVEL THEREBY. 